The present invention relates to a method of producing frozen minced fish meat (referred to as "frozen surimi").
Conventionally, frozen surimi has been produced by the process in which minced fish meat obtained from a fish meat, such as pollack, is subjected to two or more washes with fresh water, with the addition of a small amount of common salt to the fresh water used at the last wash step, removal of skin by a refiner where necessary, dehydrating by a screw-press, and then mixing with the addition of sugars or sugar alcohols, polyphosphates etc. Finally the product is packed and stored under refrigeration at minus 20.degree. C. - minus 30.degree. C. until delivery.
So far, in order to prevent the deterioration of frozen surimi, especially denaturation during freezing, sugars or sugar alcohols such as sugar or sorbitol have been generally added to dehydrated minced fish meat. These sugars or sugar alcohols advantageously give fairly reworkable effects for controlling the freezing denaturation, though according to the amount used. These sugars or sugar alcohols, however, have a fairly strong sweet taste, so as the amount added increases, the sweetness of the surimi based product proportionally increases to give an unfavorable product. Accordingly, sugars or sugar alcohols should be added in moderation to the dehydrated minced fish meat. On the contrary, starch, which has favorably no taste, exhibits little effect in the prevention of freezing denaturation, and cannot be used as a substitute for the sugars or sugar alcohols.
There are disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No.3016/1981, Japanese Patent Application KOKAI No. 155971/1982 and Japanese Patent Application KOKAI No. 249365/1986 that hydrolyzed products of starch have effects in the prevention of freezing denaturation without sweetness, but baked or fried fish products such as tempra, satsuma-age, fried-ball; yaki-kamaboko, e.g. chikuwa, sasa-kamaboko, yakinuki-kamaboko, and as such, produced from the surimi containing such hydrolyzed starch have a defect to change in color to brown. This defect would be fatal in white surimi based products such as shiroten, shiro-chikuwa and the like, the commercial value of which exists in their whiteness.